I received the following anecdote from Gary and Jody Humble, who are 'Phantoms and Monsters' readers and 'Beyond the Edge' Radio listeners:
We have a story that we want to share with you. It happened back in August 1998. We were camping in some woods off of Middle Run Road in Fairmount City, Pa. The area we were in was isolated. Back then it was a path off of a logging road. We set up camp, and got our fire going. We felt spooked, like we were being watched. But we played that off to being in the woods. Everything was fine that night, so we planned on staying Saturday night, too. We still felt spooked that night.
When it started to turn daylight we heard a lot of cracking and snapping sounds. We were in the tent, so we just stayed put being really quiet. I was laying at the side of the tent - my head against the tent side. When "these things" came to the site they were talking back and forth. It sounded like little animals chattering back and forth. They got quiet and we thought they were gone. When I moved my pillow and pushed it harder against the tent something smacked the tent right above my head, and took off back into the woods. Of course we were terrified, but we thought that it was a person trying to scare us.
At this time my husband and I weren't married yet, and we just really wanted to spend time together. So we went back to the spot to camp the next weekend, but we brought friends. One of his friends brought a .22 with them. We pulled into the camping spot again. For this to make sense I need to describe the area we pulled into to. One side was a 20 foot cliff down unto the ground. The other side was a thick line of pine trees. Behind the trees is a field, then more woods.
We were unloading and my friend said they felt like we are being watched. I said I always feel like that, it's creepy in these woods (they didn't know about the previous events). Everyone was at the trunk getting ready to move everything down the hill, and a HUGE black shadow came out behind us and ran straight off the cliff. Everyone was so scared, we jumped back into the car and left for awhile. We knew had to go back or go home. So we went back before it got to dark to set up the tent. After awhile everyone started to relax, and have fun.
When it got dark someone thought they saw someone digging in the car. The guys went up, and that same huge shadow took off again. Most of us were to scared to go back up to the car. (I look back on that and wonder why! Haha! The tent was not a safe place!) We all went to sleep in the tent. That's when we heard that same 'chattering" between the 'things' again. The friend that brought the gun unzipped the tent a little bit and fired the gun. Nothing ran, but it got quiet.
After a few minutes they (the creatures) were "talking" again. He yelled we're going to fire at you if you don't leave us alone. Whatever it was left out a scary roar-growl-noise and the other thing chattered louder. We fired the gun, and ran like hell to the car. We left, and slept in the car. When we went back in the morning the food was left untouched. The tent area with the sleeping bags was ransacked. We left everything - the tent, the sleeping bags, the food, and never went back to collect it. There is some kind of creature in those woods.
Gary and Jody Humble
